Piers Akerman – Tuesday,April 23,2013 (2:56am)

Having watched the city of Boston emerge from lockdown following the murderous terrorist attack on the Boston marathon, the politically correct are now pondering what motivated the Tsarnaev brothers.

The thought that the pair of young Muslims had signed up to the global jihad seems to have escaped them.

This is not infrequent in Obama’s US, as even the President seemed to choke on the “t"-word.

As former US Attorney General Michael Mukasey pointed out in a hard-hitting piece in The Wall Street Journal there was no mystery about the agenda in reality – it was jihad.

Mukasey wonders why the US is driven by political correctness – as Australia seems to be also.

Islamist terror is rarely cited in America and here, our own Attorney General Mark Dreyfus has gone out of his way to claim that the fire-breathing imam Shaikh Fez Mohammad, whose video was listed on the elder Tsarnaev’s website, is now a peace-loving fellow.

The question for Australians surely must be whether Tamerlan, whose namesake was apparently Tamerlane, the Muslim conqueror who enjoyed building pyramids of his victims’ skulls (after entertaining himself and his horde by torturing his defeated foe), ever was in contact with the former Auburn-based cleric.

If so, when, and what did Fez Mohammed teach him?

Perhaps the surviving brother, Dzhokhar, will tell us when he can speak.

Mukasey is more concerned though with by Obama’s disbanding of the CIA interrogation team that used to handle suspects like this.

He says it is likely that the younger Tsarnaev will be questioned by the High-Value Interrogation Group, or HIG, which the FBI created after so-called underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up the airplane in which he was traveling as it flew over Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009 and was advised of his Miranda rights.

He also says that the Obama has bowed to Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups as the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America, and other self-proclaimed spokesmen for American Muslims to the extent that the FBI has bowdlerized its training materials to exclude references to militant Islamism.

He notes that the US Army’s after-action report following Maj. Nidal Hasan’s rampage at Fort Hood in November 2009, preceded by his shout “allahu akhbar"— referred to the incident as “workplace violence” and that the Army chief of staff at the time said the most tragic result of Fort Hood would be if it interfered with the Army’s diversity program.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev is the fifth person since 9/11 who has participated in terror attacks after questioning by the FBI. He was preceded by Nidal Hasan; drone casualty Anwar al Awlaki; Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad (born Carlos Leon Bledsoe), who murdered an Army recruit in Little Rock in June 2009; and David Coleman Headley, who provided intelligence to the perpetrators of the Mumbai massacre in 2008. That doesn’t count Abdulmutallab, who was the subject of warnings to the CIA that he was a potential terrorist.

The former Attorney General questions whether the intelligence yielded by the FBI’s investigation will be able to be used during Dzhokhar’s trial or whether it might have to be withheld because it compromises security.

He says it now apparent that with al Qaeda unable to mount elaborate attacks like the one it carried out on 9/11, other Islamists have stepped in with smaller and less intricate crimes, but crimes that are nonetheless meant to send a terrorist message.

These include Faisal Shahzad, who failed to detonate a device in Times Square in 2010, and would-be subway bomber Najibullah Zazi and his confederates.

Mukasey warns that the US needs to confront the totalitarian ideology that has existed since at least the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1920s.

He says it has regarded the United States as its principal adversary since the late 1940s.

The first World Trade Center bombing, in 1993, al Qaeda attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, on the USS Cole in 2000, the 9/11 attacks, and those in the dozen years since—all were fueled by Islamist hatred for the U.S. and its values.

If this war is going to be fought, it’s high time we in the West called it for what it is – jihad.

Tim Blair – Tuesday,April 23,2013 (3:16pm)

• Submit a photo or video of your hooptie (preferably as a link), along with a pithy description, to the email link on the left using the subject line “Cruise In”.

• Eligibility is open to fossil fuel-powered human conveyances (cars, motorcycles, boats, aircraft, spacecraft, etc.) and other devices at my discretion. E.g., an electric blender is not interesting; a blown Hemi-powered blender is.

• Please submit only those vehicles you personally own, or have stolen. I know many of you have pics of other people’s cars, but this exhibition is about taking personal responsibility for the environment.

• If your vehicle was featured in last year’s Cruise-In, please wait ‘til next year to re-enter. Let’s keep it fresh, people!

Tim Blair – Tuesday,April 23,2013 (1:57pm)

Iran is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric’s unusual explanation for why the earth shakes follows a prediction by the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that a quake is certain to hit Tehran and that many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate.

“Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

Women in the Islamic Republic are required by law to cover from head to toe, but many, especially the young, ignore some of the more strict codes and wear tight coats and scarves pulled back that show much of the hair.

The shameless quake-causing sluts. While Sedighi’s 2010 seismic theory was obviously based on the very latest science and deserves great respect, if there is indeed some connection between clothing and earthquakes, surely Sydney must be due for something in the range of a magnitude 20 tectonic terror.

Tim Blair – Tuesday,April 23,2013 (4:18am)

Speech analyst Dean Frenkel – a former cricket teammate of mine, as it happens; he was a gifted batsman, but I once had to shout at him for playing a harmonica on the field – praises the Prime Minister’s vocal skills:

Each day her ‘’listenability’’ continues to improve. Ms Gillard has removed the edges off her voice and added a mixture of strength and softness. Her voice has more body. She speaks with a grounded deep resonance that sounds more relaxed. There is more strength in her voice and she no longer sounds stilted. She is relaxed enough to reveal more of herself. The floor of her voice is more solid and it now dominates her overall sound. Her degree of projection control with microphone technique takes considerable respiratory and vocal strength.

Yet the PM, still learning to talk at 51, remains unable to pronounce the letter “t”. Further from Dean:

Ms Gillard’s most impressive speechmaking skills are her quick mind, memory, speech fluency and an ability to rarely stumble when she’s talking.

UPDATE. Two years ago, Media Watch‘s Jonathan Holmes devoted a segment of his tax-funded program to me and Andrew Bolt. Our crime: we’d posted links to the Guardian and the New York Times, speculating that “a jihadist group” was behind deadly Oslo attacks. Of course, it soon emerged that these sources were mistaken. As my updated post noted, the attacks were the work of a solitary psycho Norwegian.

Still, this didn’t stop Holmes from complaining about a lack of “common sense and decency” in coverage of that international atrocity. Following the latest international atrocity, then, you’d expect Holmes to have something to say about pre-emptive Tea Party slurs. But no, because international stories are suddenly off Media Watch‘s agenda:

Strange. An Australian paper claiming unprecedented warming of our part of the world is quickly exposed as having made a howler that causes it to be withdrawn.
Yet slabs of it seem now to have been included in the IPCC’s upcoming review of global warming.
Too convenient to exclude?
UPDATE
The Gillard Government claimed it would rake in more than $9 billion a
year from carbon trading from 2015 because Europe’s price would be a
healthy $29 a tonne. The latest estimate?

[O]nce the fixed-price period for the carbon tax ends in 2015 and
Australia’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) links with Europe’s carbon
market...RepuTex forecasts...a tonne of carbon could drop from its fixed
price of $25.40 to as little as $8.

UPDATE
Ths crude scaremongering on behalf of the Gillard Government is unworthy
of the Governer General, and is not compatible with her apolitical
role:

Papua New Guinea’s coastline from Vanimo in West
Sepik to Lae in Morobe province has been described as vulnerable to the
effects of climate change.

BEN FORDHAM:
March 7th,, her trip to western Sydney, you might remember she was
staying at the Rooty Hill RSL for a week, the threat of Kevin Rudd,
yeah, well that was only a week or so before those dramas were popping
up once again, issues leading up to the September election in general
and we also discussed allegations about what has become known as the
Australian Workers Union slush fund scandal. And while discussing that
issue with the Prime Minister a comment was made on this radio programme
that I now know not to be true. The comment was made by Prime Minister
Julia Gillard. We were talking about the police investigation, the
ongoing and very real police investigation into the AWU slush fund
scandal and when I mentioned this police investigation the Prime
Minister sought to clarify something. Julia Gillard wanted to make it
clear to you that she was not one of the people being investigated. Here
is a reminder:

BEN FORDHAM:
Final issue just on this and I’m not talking about political drama and
whatever, I’m talking about a police investigation that’s currently
going on. Now you concede that money from…
JULIA GILLARD:
Just be a bit careful Ben. Do not slur me with that.
BEN FORDHAM:
I have not Prime Minister, I have just said that there’s a police investigation currently going on. You know that.
JULIA GILLARD:
And you should then clarify and that’s nothing to do with me.
BEN FORDHAM:
Well, I don’t know that Prime Minister. Do you know that?
JULIA GILLARD:
Yes I do and I’ve answered that publicly before Ben and I’d refer you to those statements…

[Hear the interview here.]
BEN FORDHAM:
So Julia Gillard told me to “be careful” and not to “slur her” when
talking about that police investigation. The PM told me to clarify that
it had nothing to do with her. Well, I am correcting that record this
afternoon because I know for a fact that the Prime Minister is being investigated by police over the slush fund scandal.She
was being interviewed at the time of the interview. Let me say that
again so there’s no confusion. She was being investigated at the time of
the interview. She was being investigated at the time that
interview went to air on the 7th of March on this radio station. She’s
not been interviewed. The investigation is comprehensive and by no means
complete but police are still in the process of taking statements on
this issue involving the Prime Minister Julia Gillard and I know this
because I have actually been asked by police to make a formal statement.
The police are interested in comments made by Julia Gillard in the
interview with me on 2GB on the 7th of March. At the request of police,
I’m not going to go into any detail about it other than saying what I’ve
just said. I have been asked to make a statement to police and I’m in
the process of making that happen. I feel it’s appropriate to share this
news with you because this is your show. And when someone tells us
something that’s not true and I know it not to be true, I’m going to
tell you about it.

Just to clarify. Gillard has not been interviewed by the police. Police are investigating her role in the AWU matter.
To repeat: Gillard insists she did not know of her boyfriend’s scams
after she helped to create his slush fund, and insists she did not
profit from them.
UPDATE
It’s a kind of denial, or something. So believe Fordham or believe Gillard - or believe you’re not getting a straight answer:

A spokesman for the Prime Minister this afternoon rejected the new
claims, saying Ms Gillard stood by her previous comments on the matter.
”Nothing has changed from our previous statements,” the spokesman said.
In response to the broadcast, a Victorian Police spokeswoman said: “Our
Fraud and Extortion Squad is currently investigating a complaint
regarding the alleged misappropriation of funds from a union. Victorian
Police will not be providing running commentary in relation to this
investigation. The investigation remains ongoing.”

Those sanctimonious .... Presuming to run the moral ruler over the media, demanding new curbs on reporters.
Here is Patry Hoskins gently, sweetly questioning her (now) lover’s clients before the Leveson inquiry:

Mrs Patry Hoskins had access to confidential
information supplied under compulsion by media organisations,
cross-examined several of Mr Sherborne’s clients, and helped formulate
some of the thinking behind the Leveson report.
Her dealings with Mr Sherborne should have been strictly at arm’s
length. Indeed, under Bar Council rules, both lawyers should have
informed Leveson of their relationship – which neither did – and at
least one should have withdrawn.

Frankly, this affair shows how incestuous, self-righteous and
hypocritical the legal profession can be. Along with doctors, they are
one of Britain’s last great unreformed institutions – self-policing and
impervious to external criticism.
They are supposed to defend liberty, yet have been in the vanguard of the current assault on Press freedom.
Draconian judge-led privacy laws, superinjunctions, defamation rules
that make Britain the libel capital of the world, and the explosion of
the no-win, no-fee compensation culture can all be laid at their door.
And in the post-Leveson era – abetted by an increasingly authoritarian
police force – their power to stifle free speech and protect the
powerful from criticism is becoming even more frightening.

Terry McCrann says Wayne Swan’s five Budgets have left us dangerously exposed:

In fact as we know, in reality, they’ve all been deficits, including the
one to come. Six budgets, six deficits. And counting, into the distant
future.
Those six deficits by themselves will add to around $210 billion…
Back in 2008 [to counter the global financial crisis], Treasurer Swan
had plenty of deficit and debt elbow room to embark on spending, or to
simply let the budget bottom line blow out. He of course did both.
Because back then, he started with a $20 billion yearly surplus and zero net debt when the cold winds started to blow.
Further, although we didn’t realise it at the time—and the Government
still refuses to acknowledge its positive significance for the budget as
well as the broader economy—China would come spectacularly to our help
from 2009 on.
None of that, and I mean none of that, is going to be available ``next
time’’; assuming there is a ``next time’’; and trust me, there will be a
``next time’’.
We now start with a $20 billion deficit instead of a $20 billion surplus.
We now start with net (federal) debt already at $200 billion instead of being at zero.
And there is no way that China can, far less would even try, to do what
it did in 2009, which sent commodity prices soaring and directly and
indirectly poured billions into the economy and into Swan’s budget…
Indeed, even relatively optimistic forecasts of what might happen in
China over the next few years, point to likely (hopefully modest) falls
in commodity prices, a far, far cry from the spectacular increases we
saw in 2009-10.
The truth of what happened to those promised Swan surpluses, is that the
Government never really reined in spending after the stimulus surge;
and it did not face up to, yes, lower, but not as low as claimed,
revenues…
The evidence is clear and simple. This is a high-spending, high-taxing
Government, that leaves the budget bottom line in entrenched deficit.

the amount of money that’s coming to government for the reasons you and I have already touched upon is substantially less than was anticipated. I mean, the example I give is for this budget year, just two years ago, we were predicting $20 billion more coming in than is and even since the mid-year review in October we’re about $7.5 billion less for this financial year than we anticipated.

It is your fault, Wayne, for assuming out-of-reach
increases in revenue, which you needed in order to continue the sham of a
budget surplus being delivered in 2012-13…
Just take a look at the figures, even the ones shaved in the MYEFO.
Government receipts were expected to increase from 22.5 per cent of GDP
in 2011-12 to 24 per cent in 2012-13 - by 1.5 percentage points in one
year!
Revenue was expected to rise by 11.3 per cent or more than $37 billion.
Were we supposed to take these estimates of revenue seriously, when we
always knew that nominal GDP growth was unlikely to exceed 6 to 7 per
cent?
Actually, growth in government revenue has not been doing too badly in
the current financial year, averaging about 7 per cent growth on an
annual basis.

A government of spenders not savers, fantasists not realists.
UPDATE
A rare bit of good news:

Fancy, Swan helped by those greedy miners. So what happens if mineral prices fall?
UPDATE
The proof that revenue isn’t the problem, declining only in one year, three years ago. From the Reserve Bank, this tale of increasing total revenues for both Coalition and Labor governments (in millions of dollars):

(The Reserve Bank’s latest estimates for final figures for this
financial year: total revenue $376 billion, total expenditure $378
billion. So a huge increase in earnings.)
Reader Rod:

Howard – last 5 years:

total income $1.06 Trillion
total expenditure - $0.98 Trillion

Gillard/Rudd – last 5 years

income total $1.54 Trillion
total expenditure $1.73 Trillion

Bottom line:

Gillard/Rudd –total income increase of 145%, total expenditure increase of 176%

Simon Crean should have enough heart-broken Labor stalwarts to form a new party:

ONE of Queensland’s former union powerbrokers has quit the Labor party after 36 years, warning it has “lost the plot” and is being ruined by factional power struggles.
In a scathing critique of his party, David Harrison said Prime Minister
Julia Gillard and her predecessor Kevin Rudd had trashed Labor’s values
with “crass politics”.
Mr Harrison warned Labor was controlled by a small cabal who were only interested in petty power struggles.
A self-described “rusted on” Labor supporter, Mr Harrison was president
of the Queensland Council of Unions for a decade until 2004 and AMWU
secretary for 24 years…

He mocked Ms Gillard’s repeated use of the phrase “Labor values”, saying this just alienated voters.
“I am horrified by the crass politics. There are no Labor values in the stuff that’s going on.”

UPDATE
Julia Gillard cleansed her foes from her Ministry to head off Kevin
Rudd. Now they’re busy preparing some pre-election surprises:

Labor’s leading warrior of the Left, Senator Kim Carr is writing a book to be published by MUP ahead of the September election.
Senator Carr was the third minister to resign after Kevin Rudd declined
to challenge Prime Minister Julia Gillard after former Arts Minister
Simon Crean called for a leadership spill last month… Senator Carr is a
true believer and his book, A Letter to Generation Next - why Labor?
lays out the case for the Labor Party. His focus is firmly on
generations X and Y, who have lost faith in the ALP, and feel the Party
can no longer claim to be the party of social justice, reform and
equality.

It mentioned the bombers were Chechen, but
not that they were Muslim, adding: “It should be noted that information
that emerged. . . didn’t fit into any neat profile, aside from the fact
that the suspects were young adult males.”

Canadian police say they have arrested two people and charged them with
trying to carry out an Al Qaeda-backed terrorist attack against a
passenger train.
Authorities say Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35,
of Toronto, were planning to derail a VIA passenger train, which is part
of Canada’s national rail network.

This from another ABC report which, yes, gives the clue in “al Qaeda” but does not mention the word “Muslim” once.
Mind you, Canadian police did not want to use that “M” word, either:

Authorities said the pair are “not Canadian citizens” but declined to
reveal their respective nationalities. The main suspect lived in
Montreal for several years, another official added.
The suspects’ plans were ”not based on their ethnic origins but on an ideology”, police said.

ABC Radio National does not have one [conservative] presenter of, or
regular [conservative] political commentator on any of its main
programs. So it came as no surprise that its first substantive comment
on the Boston attack took place on Late Night Live last Tuesday when
left-wing presenter Phillip Adams interviewed Bruce Shapiro,
contributing editor at the left-wing journal The Nation.
Like Jones, Shapiro acknowledged that the facts were not known. However,
like Jones, he had a theory. Shapiro made it very clear that the Boston
bombing was almost certainly carried out by a home-grown extreme
right-wing terrorist who held extreme views “on issues like guns and
abortion"…
The following morning Monash University’s Professor Greg Barton (who
usually talks sense) appeared on the ABC1 News Breakfast program. Barton
made it clear that it was most likely that “right-wing extremism was
involved” and not “Muslim Americans”.
It turns out that many commentators in the West were hoping that the
Boston culprits were home-grown so-called “patriots"… For understandable
reasons, there was a hope that the Boston terrorists had not embraced
the Jihadist cause. But they had.
Most of the Jihadist attacks on the US have been conducted by foreigners
or new citizens. The list includes the “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab who attempted to bring down a plane over Detroit in 2009
and Faisal Shahzad who attempted to explode a bomb in Times Square the
following year. The former was Nigerian, the latter a Pakistani-American
citizen.
The time has come for blunt talking.

Authorities have confirmed they are investigating a possible link
between Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, killed during a gun battle with police on
Friday, and the murder of a man said to be his close friend, Brendan
Mess, 25. Also killed were Erik Weissman, 31, and Raphael Teken, 37.
The bodies of the men were discovered in September 2011 at Mess’s home
in the Boston suburb of Waltham. Each of the men’s throats were slashed
and they were almost decapitated. Their mutilated bodies were covered
with marijuana.

IT seems to me likely that this [the Boston bombings] was not al-Qa’ida
or a lone madman . . . but more likely, much more likely, the NRA . . .
No responsibility will be claimed by any group, and there will be no
second attack; and no culprit ever found. This is my prediction.

Well, this can’t be the explanation. ABC Radio National’s Jonathan Green tweets April 15:

TIM Blair (wrote on his blog): “Multiple bombs are the usual strategy in Islamist terrorist attacks.”

Matt J tweets yesterday:

LOOKS like Tim Blair was right. So does that mean we can discuss Islam .
. . again, or should we just ignore and hope it goes away?

Green tweets yesterday:

TO the extent that it prompted these actions of course but we know nothing of that as yet. the talk is empty.

Robert Elliott ... tweets yesterday:

THE problem with the ABC/Left echo chamber is that it excludes reality and conflicting views. Be more curious Jonathan.

Green tweets yesterday:

BLAIR was islamophobing as usual. we have only circumstantial evidence. none of us have a clue why this happened.

Elliott tweets yesterday:

YOU seriously believe that Islamism is not a clue to why this happened? Do Buddhist, Hindu or Christian students do this?

Green tweets yesterday:

I HAVE no idea why they did this. neither do you. and yes. obviously. read the papers

UPDATE
Will the ABC and Fairfax newspapers use the M word now? AP reports:

The two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon appear to have been motivated by their religious faith but
do not seem connected to any Muslim terrorist groups, U.S. officials
said Monday after interrogating the severely wounded younger man. He was
charged with federal crimes that could bring the death penalty.

And:

BOSTON bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators his
brother was the leader in last week’s deadly attacks, and that no
international terrorist groups were behind them, CNN has reported…
“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, wounded and held in a Boston hospital, has said his brother (Tamerlan, 26) - who was killed early Friday - wanted to defend Islam from attack,” CNN quoted the source as saying.

Most obviously, if you split a class of 30
into two groups of no more than 22, you need a lot more teachers,
resulting in massive salary cost increases. Second, you need a second
classroom. Kids in NSW found themselves with less and less room to run
as demountable classrooms annexed their cherished playgrounds.
Finally, to meet the sudden requirement for large numbers of additional
teachers, entrance standards slipped. Last year’s Good Universities
Guide notes that the entry to teacher training can be gained with an
Australian Tertiary Admission Rank as low as 46.5.

And, of course, education standards have not improved. Surprised? Yet how few commentators stood against this groupthink.
The key to better teaching is ... wait for it ... better teaching.

LABOR’S release of the Gonski school education reforms has failed to
give the Gillard government an immediate boost, while Tony Abbott has
increased his lead as preferred prime minister…
According to a calculation of second preference votes, based on the flow of preferences at the 2010 election, the Coalition on 55 per cent continues to lead Labor on 45 per cent.

Not much return for a $14.5 billion promise. What will Gillard try next? A $100 billion giveaway?
UPDATE
NSW grabs the money, giving it a benchmark it will demand Tony Abbott match:

JULIA Gillard and Barry O’Farrell have sealed the first Gonski education deal…
NSW is the first state to formally agree to Labor’s Gonski education
funding reforms and in doing so will create pressure for other states to
come on board.
The government has agreed to the deal this morning, worth at least $5 billion to NSW.

Tony Abbott’s office has defended his continued use of the word
“illegal” when describing the arrival of asylum seeker boats by
referring to the UN Refugee Convention…
Mr Abbott on Monday re-launched the Coalition’s famed “illegal boats”
billboards in Perth,.. The billboards read: “How many illegal boats have
arrived since Labor took over? 639 illegal boats. Labor has lost
control of Australia’s borders”.
Mr Abbott was interrupted during his address to reporters in Perth by a
passerby, who took exception to Mr Abbott’s description of asylum
seekers arriving in boats as ‘’illegal’’. ‘’It’s not illegal, that’s a
lie,’’ the man interjected. ‘’You know it’s a lie.’’…
The online reaction was swift, with a petition launched calling on Mr
Abbott to apologise for his use of the word, and Twitter users outraged
at the use of the term. Refugee advocates accused the opposition of
fear-mongering.

Edwina Storie is the Australian correspondent of Press TV, backed by Iran’s fascist regime.
As you see, she dresses modestly, as befits someone working for an Islamic state.
And she holds the appropriate views on the criminality of John Howard and others:

Take this, for example: “I do not believe in a big Australia.”
A voter would assume Gillard meant that she believes in a smaller one, right?
Or take this: “I don’t believe in simply hurtling down a track to a 36 million or a 40 million population (by 2050).”
Our gullible voter would again assume our nice Prime Minister meant
she’d at least cut our net immigration to 180,000 a year just to stop us
from going over that 36 million figure the Australian Bureau of
Statistics says we’re already hurtling to right now.
Indeed, Gillard urges voters to think just that: “I say this: let’s slow down, let’s take a breath and let’s get this right.”

A quick glance at the Bureau of Statistics population clock tells us
we’ll reach a high point of 23 million as early as next week, well ahead
of any previous prediction....
Australia’s population is growing by more than 1 million people every three years. That’s the size of Adelaide.
Our growth rate now stands at an extraordinary 1.7 per cent a year. By
comparison, the world average is 1.1 per cent, with most developed
nations well below this average.
In June 2010, Julia Gillard promised she would not pursue Kevin Rudd’s
‘’big Australia’’ population target of 36 million by 2050....
But what has happened since?
Baby bonuses remain on offer and the permanent immigration program has
been increased - yes, increased. We are now on target for not 36 million
but 40 million by 2050. Under Gillard, the permanent immigration
program stands at more than 200,000 a year - the highest level in
Australian history.

Charles Feldman: in a world where there are now fewer checks and
balances and I’m talking about journalistic checks and balances, the
danger is that the politician’s voice is then not examined and
cross-examined as it ought to be by journalists… what they should do is
govern, stick to the job of governing, and leave journalism to people
who do journalism.

A few problems here. First, there is not an either/or here: my strong
suspicion is that people who read politicians on-line also read the take
of journalists. This is normally praised as going directly to the
source before trusting the spin. Second, journalists can’t often be
trusted to tell you straight what politicians are saying. Indeed, the
examples Media Watch gives of Malcolm Turnbull using social
media show him correcting hostile Fairfax spin. This is breaking the
gatekeeper role not of dispassionate fact-checkers, but of Media Class
ideologues. For instance, how many journalists have permitted a frank
discussion of the weaknesses of global warming theory or the absence of
proof of the “stolen generations”?
True, Media Watch covered the first of these arguments -
although host Jonathan Holmes’ sympathy was clearly with Feldman, as
you’d expect from the Media Class, defending its power and privileges,
and blind to its bias.
That blindness was most startlingly obvious in this part of the Media Watch report:

That’s one view that Laurie Oakes shares. The journalist’s job, he’s
always believed, is to ask the questions, not to answer them.

“ Laurie Oakes: a concentration on providing facts - simple unfiltered
information - would be a real point of difference in the coming contest
with the new kind of political journalists - the ones who’ll be players
in the political game reporting on themselves and using the media access
that technology has given them to push their own political interests.
— Laurie Oakes, Political Editor, Nine Network, Media Alliance Centenary Lecture, 29th November, 2012”

Laurie Oakes is hoping – vainly, perhaps – that the mainstream media
will see that fact-based reporting, not endless opining, is what it can
do better than the blogosphere. But he, and I, both fear that it may be
too late.

“Too late” is one way of putting it. “Hypocrisy” is another. It seems to
me that Oakes is actually demanding a monopoly by the Canberra press
gallery on “endless opining”, which he himself does, well, endlessly
from a generally anti-Liberal perspective. Here is a list of some his recent columns:

Paul Bongiorno and Fran Kelly this morning discuss federal politics in their daily chat on ABC Radio National.
It’s established that Tony Abbott is appealing to xenophobia by
referring to “illegal” boats, Opposition education spokesman Christopher
Pyne is going “back to the past” in urging less black-armband teaching
of our history, and we need the Coalition to agree to raise more taxes,
not just cut spending.
Does Fran ever have on as guest commentator on politics someone with a
more neutral or, dare I say, conservative point of view? After all, 55
per cent of Australians seem to endorse the Coalition world view.
UPDATE
Fran then has a long chat on global warming with someone from the
Climate Change Authority. Not once is mention made of the most
remarkable fact about global warming: that although emissions have risen
faster than predicted, warming has been at a virtual standstill for 16
years.

If the economy goes bust, deficits will be just one of our worries.
One of Australia’s most respected economists, Ross Garnaut, of the
University of Melbourne, warns that when the mining boom busts, the
economy is likely to bust with it. History is on his side. Since 2005,
mining investment has reared up like a tidal wave, from 2 per cent of
GDP to more than 8 per cent. If it breaks like a tidal wave, it will
swamp the economy.

Take the existing budget problems first…
First, tax revenue has collapsed, and Treasury secretary Martin
Parkinson warns that, on current settings, it will stay weak for years
ahead…
Second, Labor has introduced three big new fiscal commitments without
the revenue to pay for them. The mining tax was meant to fund the
government’s share of the increase in superannuation contributions from 9
per cent to 12 per cent, but that is now essentially unfunded. So is
the commitment to $9.4 billion of new education spending from the Gonski
report and so is the national disability insurance scheme.
Third, the pressures of an ageing society on the budget, which Treasury has warned of for years, are becoming real…
The bottom line is that something’s got to give. Australia cannot continue this level of spending with this level of revenue…
Garnaut, a former ambassador to China, says we underestimate the
seriousness of China’s rulers in planning to shift its economy to a more
gradual, less resource-intensive growth path. He points out that last
year, coal use declined in Chinese power stations…
... every mining boom since the war has ended in a bust, and there is no
reason to think this time will be different. It was a very big boom, so
it could be a very big bust.

Yet it appears that Ms Gillard has consciously decided to defiantly
maintain her controversial accent and articulation patterns.
Interestingly there has been no effort to refine them, which is probably
a reflection of her personal values. The way she articulates may be a
product of her union background or perhaps is her way of expressing her
Australian pride. Which begs the question: does poor articulation make
you more ‘’Australian’’?
Here are some of her articulation bloopers: ‘d’s sound more like ‘dge’s
as in ‘ed(dj)ucation revolution’; ‘t’s are expressed as ‘d’s as in
‘bedder’ (better), ‘ee’s become ‘eryees’, as in ‘berleryeeve’ (believe)
and ‘a’s become ‘eyes’ as in ‘Ostrylya’ (Australia) …
Ms Gillard’s most impressive speechmaking skills are her quick mind,
memory, speech fluency and an ability to rarely stumble when she’s
talking…
Some of Ms Gillard’s values are detectable through her speech. She is
very proud to be Australian. She wants to appear solid and grounded and
is prepared to sacrifice colour from her delivery… . The dour demeanour
is consistent with trying to project that she wants us to feel we are in
safe hands.

Nice to see our aid money going to a struggling executive in the Caribbean:

Former top FIFA official Jack Warner allegedly stole a $462,000 donation the
Football Federation of Australia donated to his Caribbean football
organisation in 2010, at a time when the FFA was lobbying Mr Warner to
back its bid to host the World Cup…
The finding that Mr Warner stole the money – made over the weekend by an
integrity panel headed by several former judges – raises fresh
questions about the FFA’s decision to give lucrative grants in 2010 to
soccer organisations headed by influential FIFA officials previously
accused of corruption.
The existence of the $462,000 donation– and its subsequent alleged theft
– has never been reported publicly in Australia, including in the FFA
and government inquiries into Australia’s failed $45 million bid.

Isaacs MP Mark Dreyfus said..."One third of Australians were born
overseas and Greater Dandenong is home to citizens representing 150
different nationalities,” he said. “Our community is a wonderful example
to others of a modern, diverse and harmonious society.”

There comes a time when the desire to seem nice collides with the need
to be honest. Dreyfus is not telling the truth, in my opinion. When you
can’t be honest about trouble in your back yard, are you likely to ever
fix it?
(Thanks to reader Ed.)
UPDATE
Reader Skeptical Denier:

Maybe it would help if Dreyfus actually lived in his electorate
rather than the leafy ‘burbs of Malvern. He may then actually know what
is going on in our electorate. Typical seeming of the hand-wringing left
rather than actually doing.

Julia Gillard is doing a people’s forum in Deakin, the country’s second most marginal seat. You can follow it here.
UPDATE
Curious. The audience is supposed to be uncommitted voters, selected by Galaxy. Here are the questions so far:

Gay marriage - an advocate urges Gillard to get on board.
Education - a critic of the cuts to university funding.
Debt - a neutral question on when the government will return to surplus.
NBN - A supporter of the NBN complains not enough people know of the benefits.
Achievements - An apparent supporter tells Gillard she has a lot of
achievements to her credit and should tell people. What will she do to
get out the message?
Negative gearing - a neutral question on where she will change the rules.
Food security - someone who’s read Tim Flannery’s book The Future Eaters has a question.
Superannuation - a man calling himself “a socialist at heart” says he’d be prepared to pay more tax on his super.
Same sex marriage - another supporter. Attacks Tony Abbott for a “political connivance”.
Live cattle trade - Woman says “I’ve always voted for the Labor Party” but live trade is disturbing.

An audience of uncommitted voters? A couple of committeds seem to have slipped in under the net.

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===Hear with your heart, see with your soul, be guided by a hand that you cannot hold, and trust even if you cannot see. That's how faith must be... Holly
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4 Her
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===God's love .. ed
the best things in life are hideously expensive and I love them (anon)
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My bedroom is terribly misleading
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===Graphic Quotes: John Wayne on Well-Educated Idiots

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===Taking off from backwards hover, just to make things a little bit more complicated and challenging cause we just don't like things that are EASY. :D
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===Get ready for abundance in your life because God has been to your future and He declares that it is good! Check out more in today's devotional and be blessed!http://bit.ly/10yiW7i
===What's the best way to dispel darkness in a room? Switch on the light! Likewise, the best way to dispel any darkness in your life is to turn on the light of Christ. In this uplifting video excerpt, Joseph Prince shows you how Jesus, the light of the world, lifts you up and gives you a confident expectation of good even in your darkest hour. It's time to let His light in and banish every cloud of darkness in your life! http://josephprince.com/
===Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me (Ps 23:4, NLT).
===Check out today's devotional to find out why you are already blessed in Christ! http://bit.ly/11phPcK
===Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.—Matt 11:29–30

Jesus sees the cares you carry in your heart. He knows the worries you have for your family and for the future.

And He wants to give you rest today. The way you receive rest is to be yoked with Him, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

When a pair of oxen is yoked together, the younger ox just follows what the lead ox does and in this way, learns what it needs to do. Likewise, all you have to do is to follow God’s leading and flow with Him.

God will not lay anything heavy on you. Ask Him to come into your career, family and relationships. You will find Him leading you to do the right thing at the right time, prospering all that you put your hands to!http://josephprince.com/
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Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for April 22nd. Enjoy!

More details are seeping out about how the Boston jihadist brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev came to the U.S. and managed to stay here despite security threat red flags raised to the FBI two years ago...

1985 – The Coca-Cola Company introduced "New Coke" to replace its flagship soft drink Coca-Cola, which generated so much negative response that the company put the previous formula back on the market less than three months later.

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About Me

I'm author of History in a Year by the Conservative Voice aka History of the World in a Year by the Conservative Voice.

I'm the Conservative Voice.

I'm looking to make contact with those who might use my skill.

I have an m-audio mobile pre amp fed by the audiotechnica 2041sp condensor mic pack. Prior to 15/4/06, I'd used a Shure sm-58 that required a nuclear blast to register a sound or the internal mic of my aged imac, which has a penchance to recording my breathing. I also used a Griffin itrip, until the community convinced me it was not hiding my talent as well as the other mics.

I am a Writer and an occasional Math Teacher (Sir, what's the occasion?). I like to sing, having no instrumental talent (cannot even clap in time, and yes, I'm aware singing badly IS obnoxious).

I have performed the finale to Les Miserables before an audience of 500. I have also sung before a similar audience (students, parents) renditions of 'I Will' (Beatles), 'Mr Cairo' (Jon Vangelis) and 'I am Australian' (Seekers). Now I seek another profession because the audience hates me ..